


Tip Your Servers

by ohmytheon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: 2 am diner AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 02:37:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1763119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmytheon/pseuds/ohmytheon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not often that Arya picks up her drunk sister and her friends in the middle of the night, but stopping at this little diner might prove to be the best idea ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tip Your Servers

It’s at some shoddy little diner that she meets him. She’s noticed growing up and going out to eat a lot with her family that there are more guy servers in fancy restaurants and more girls in, well, not-so-fancy restaurants. And this is not a fancy restaurant. It’s certainly not the type of restaurant that her very fancy, older sister Sansa normally enjoys, but then again, Sansa isn’t acting so fancy right now, not when she’s drunk and giggling alongside her best friends Jeyne, Mya, and Margaery.

Normally, getting a drunken phone call around two in the morning from anyone would’ve pissed her off, seeing as how she had swim practice at six before she went to school, but the fact that it was Sansa of all people that called her threw her off her game. She and Sansa may have fought all the time, but she wasn’t about to leave her sister and her friends hanging. They could’ve gotten a cabbie or something, but Sansa called her and for some reason or another, that had made Arya feel…wanted.

But of course, as soon as the girls had piled into the back of her car, instead of taking them right back home, Sansa leaned up, throwing her arms around her sister awkwardly around the seat and proclaimed, “Oh, I am so hungry, dear sister! Could we please stop to get something to eat?” Then she’d fallen into a fit of giggles.

Mya was the one to suggest this diner. Unlike Margaery and Sansa, and even Jeyne to a certain point, Mya didn’t come from money. She was used to these cheap places that Arya and Sansa’s family had never taken them to. Apparently the chicken and waffles were good enough to kill for. Sansa loved her friends dearly, for however different they all were from each other, and she usually went along with whatever they decided, especially Margaery and Mya. Margaery could tell them all that the sun was going to explode and Sansa and Jeyne would start preparing for the end of the world. Hell, everyone probably would. Mya was cooler than that. She was like steel. Out of all of Sansa’s friends, Arya liked Mya the most and the fact that this place was her suggestion was the only reason Arya agreed to take them here in the first place.

It’s kind of a surprise when, after squeezing next to each other in a booth, the person that comes up to wait on them is not some girl in a ridiculous waitress outfit, but a boy.

“Hi, what can I get you all?” he immediately asks. No pleasantries, no hello, how are you, this is my name even though you’ll never remember me after tonight. He’s got something of a bored look in his eyes, though Arya can tell that he’s half-heartedly trying to look interested in them. When he locks eyes with a grinning Mya, he drops his pad and damn near groans. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m hungry and drunk,” Mya replies, “and I wanted to see just how good of a server my little brother was.”

The boy rolls his eyes. “Little brother,” he mutters before shaking his head and determinedly not looking at Mya. Arya glances at both of them in surprise. She and Mya have talked a good amount, but she’d never known that she had family, much less a brother. From what Arya knew, Mya was an orphan and bounced around foster homes for most of her life. Maybe this boy was one of her “foster brothers” or something like that. Although, now that she looked at them both, she realized that they looked very much alike. Same shaggy black hair, same piercing blue eyes, same ears and nose… “So drinks, food? What can I do for you? And don’t you say anything, Mya.”

“I’m your best advertiser!” Mya quips.

They give them their order; and he quickly scurries away back into the kitchen. Placing her chin in her hands, Arya listens to the four other girls go on and on about their adventurous night, but it bores her almost right at the start. Sansa isn’t one to get drunk and goes out less than once a month, but getting all four girls together speaks of trouble. Mya knows the rougher spots and likes to see them all get scandalized. Margaery is brave and bold and clever and never haves to pay for a drink. The two of those girls teaching Jeyne and Sansa their ways was a recipe for a wild night.

“I’m going to the restroom,” Arya says to no one in particular and no one in particular notices. They’re all too wrapped up in their replay of the night and the haze of booze they’ve consumed over the night. She leaves them and goes to wash her hands and splash her face with some water. Swim practice would be okay, but the rest of the school day was going to be hell from being up this late. Who knew how long it would take to goad them into leaving and going home after they ate.

When Arya walks back out, she notices that the four girls are still very much involved in their conversation. She changes route and abruptly sits down on one of the stools at the bar top. A few of them have tears that have been fixed with duct tape, but she finds it somewhat endearing.

The boy appears again from the kitchen and catches sight of her. Almost awkwardly, he walks over to her. “Er, can I get you anything?”

“I’m just gonna sit here for a while,” Arya replies. “I’m kind of tired and I don’t think I can…handle them right now.”

He grins a little. “Let me guess – you’re the DD.”

“Let me tell you, getting called at one in the morning isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be.”

“That’s pretty much what I deal with five nights a week, so I agree with you there.” He turns his back on her before she can say anything else, grabbing a cup and messing with a machine. When he comes back to her, he slides a cup in front of her. “Free root beer float on the house for DDs.”

Arya quirks an eyebrow as she grabs hold of the float covetously. “Really?”

“Well, it’s not really the company policy, but I figure you deserve it,” he says, his cheeks burning just a tinge.

For a minute, neither of them say anything. He leans back against the wall behind the bar and glances through the window where their food is slowly starting to appear and she sits and sips on the root beer float. She hasn’t had one of these since she’s a little kid and now that she has one now, she can’t figure out why it’s been so long. Still, something is bugging her, so she puts the float on hold for a second. “So you’re Mya’s little brother?”

“Er, ah, I’m her half-brother really,” he answers, and then quickly adding, “but I’m not like her _little_ brother. Well, I mean, I guess I am, but – I’m only a few years younger than her.”

“I didn’t know she had any siblings, to be honest,” Arya says. “Did you…?” She immediately feels sort of stupid for asking such a question, even though she never really finished asking it. She can tell from his face that he understands what she’s asking though. Arya is known for asking blunt and rude questions – her parents thought she’d outgrow it – but even she feels guilty sometimes. “Oh, shit, that was rude. I didn’t mean–”

He waves a dismissive hand at her though. “No, it’s cool. Yeah, I grew up in foster homes too. Our dad had a bad habit of abandoning women he knocked up. Mya’s mom dipped pretty much right after she was born. Mine died a when I was four. We wouldn’t have even known we were siblings until…” He rubs the back of his neck and grimaces, looking pretty uncomfortable at the memories being brought up. “It’s kind of a weird, long, complicated story. But in the end, I found out that I had family and that’s all that really matters.”

“Huh, Mya’s never said anything about this,” Arya replies, wearing a surprised look on her face, the root beer float now completely forgotten. “I don’t think she’s even told my sister Sansa.”

“Ah, well, it’s not like it’s secret or anything since it was all over the news and all a few years ago, but…” He shrugs his shoulders. She just looks even more surprised. This is not the kind of story she thought she would hear upon picking up her sister and her friends. Who knew that waiters in random little diners could have such a crazy and interesting background? “But I guess it’s just something private for us still. Like I said, it’s…weird.”

It’s Arya’s turn to shrug her shoulders and she takes a sip of her float again. “I kind of understand. My family’s in the public eye all the time and constantly scrutinized, but we still try to keep things private.” She snorts. “We’re not Lannisters, after all.”

The boy smiles a little at that, a strange smile, like he’s amused at what she said, even though she knows it wasn’t that witty. He holds out a hand. “And this is when I realize I’ve been a complete dolt and never introduced myself. I’m Gendry.”

Arya shakes his hand. “Arya Stark.”

“I kinda figured,” Gendry replies. “Mya talks about your sister and you and, well, like you said – your family is pretty much all over the place. I recognized you when you walked in.” He pauses and gives a disgruntled look, more to himself than her. “That sounded creepier than I intended.”

But Arya laughs. “Stalking me via the news and media websites, are we?”

This time, instead of slightly turning pink, Gendry turns full on red in the cheeks. “No, I–”

“Order’s up!” the chef shouts through the window.

While Gendry hurries to get their food, Arya shuffles back over to the table with the other girls so they can all eat their food. Surprisingly, all four girls scarf down their food in a decidedly not very lady-like manner, but Arya can’t complain. She’s had a surprisingly interesting night, but she’s also very much excited to get back in bed. Once they’ve finished and paid, the girls all but run out of the diner towards Arya’s car, already talking about where they’re going to sleep. Mya hugs her brother and then bounces out the door. Arya is last, making sure that no one has forgotten anything (of course Jeyne left her entire purse behind and Sansa’s ID is sitting on the table). She starts for the door when she stops and turns back around.

“Oh, hey, I almost left with this,” she calls to him. Gendry walks over to her. She hands over the receipt to him, a twenty dollar tip shining in bright green ink courtesy of Margaery. “Your tip for dealing with a bunch of giggling drunk girls so well.”

“Your all’s bill wasn’t even twenty. I can’t–” After she gives him a look, he looks back down at the receipt and then focuses on the very bottom of the receipt and takes notice of the phone number written on there. “Oh.”

Arya smirks. “Figured it’d make it easier for you to stalk me,” she says before walking out the door.


End file.
